Remarks of Chair Cari M. Dominguez

The purpose of this meeting is to examine the equal employment
opportunity complaint processing system currently available to 2.7
million federal employees.

Stakeholders representing both complainants and federal agencies
have long voiced concerns that the federal sector process is much
too slow, far too expensive, unnecessarily intricate, and
inherently unfair. While previous administrations have tried to
improve this system through regulatory changes, clearly, more must
be done.

During the past several months, I have met with representatives
of advocacy groups who have graciously shared their experiences and
ideas for reform. Additionally, numerous individuals and groups
have communicated with me on this topic through written
correspondence. Today's meeting represents a continuation of this
ongoing dialogue. I want to emphasize that this is a fact-finding
expedition. At this time, no formal plan is under consideration by
the Commission.

I, along with my fellow commissioners, am grateful for the
opportunity to learn from those of you who have navigated the
federal sector complaint process firsthand. Please be assured that
your input will be central to the Commission's deliberations
regarding reform.

Our next step will be to discuss options for a complaint
processing system that will be more efficient, responsive and fair.
When the Commission is ready to propose a
plan, we will do so through the formal rulemaking process.

The principle behind the phrase "equal employment opportunity,"
or EEO, is that everyone has the right to compete for a job, go
about his or her work, and pursue advancement free of
discriminatory barriers. Race, gender, national origin, religion,
disability and age have no place in these matters. Likewise, all
employees should be able to seek and obtain prompt corrective
action when they believe that violations of law have occurred.
Discrimination can have devastating consequences to people's lives.
The system meant to protect civil rights should not compound their
problems.

Federal employees are expected to serve their country with
diligence, respect and commitment. In return, they deserve no less
from their government. More than 23,000 complaints of
discrimination are filed annually by federal workers nationwide.
The system is so overburdened that many of these complaints
stagnate for years before they are resolved.

Fiscal Year 2001 statistics show that federal agencies closed
25,283 complaints. (1) However, only
3830 (or 15.1%) resulted from decisions of EEOC Administrative
Judges. They took on average, 800 days to process from filing to
issuance of the agency decision, compared to 402 days for
complaints on which decisions were issued without a hearing.

Hearings are a carry-over from the old Civil Service Commission
complaint process. But, for many the hearing represents, the only
independent, neutral, objective review of the complaint in a
process that is viewed as controlled by the agency alleged to have
discriminated. If that is the purpose of the hearing, it clearly
benefits very few complainants and at a significant cost in time
and dollars spent by complainants, who frequently are represented
by counsel; by agencies who normally are represented by counsel and
who must fund witness travel to hearings and pay for other
administrative expenses; and for the Commission, who provides the
Administrative Judges and the support personnel to process the
hearings request, conduct the hearing, and issue decisions.

While the majority of decisions finding illegal discrimination
flow from AJ decisions, not all do. 194 of the decisions finding
discrimination issued by agencies in FY 01 followed an AJ's
decision, compared to only 67 (25.7%) issued by agencies without a
hearing. Agencies disagreed with 73 AJ decisions finding
discrimination. Even including those decisions with which agencies
did not agree and did not implement, only 344 of the 25,000 +
closures were in someone's opinion findings of discrimination. That
represents a paltry 1.54%!!!

We have made some progress in processing federal sector EEO
complaints. The changes to the regulations made in 1999 have
yielded some positive benefits. Agencies are working diligently to
reduce their processing time.

EEOC's Office of Federal Operations has reduced its appellate
processing time and inventory. Currently, appellate inventory is
4809, a reduction of 36.2% since FY 2001. The average age of the
appellate inventory is 256 days compared to 430 days at the end of
FY 2001. Our AJ's have increased productivity as well. In FY 2001,
they resolved only 9402 complaints, compared to 11,666 at the end
of FY 2002.

But as statistics show, our stakeholders' criticisms are still
well founded. These issues demand and deserved the EEOC's
attention. Even more compelling than the statistics, though, are
the real people behind them.